Trump’s First Home Gets Price—But Not Historic—Boost

It could take years or decades for his childhood home to get historic designation

The value of Donald Trump’s childhood home in Queens, New York, has skyrocketed thanks to his triumph last week—but its historical worth, not so much.

At least, not yet, say local and national landmarks organizations.

Mr. Trump’s victory is expected to give the brick-and-stucco tudor where he first lived a major price boost when the property goes to auction next month, but his election has also raised the possibility that its buyer will inherit a home headed for landmark designation.

Until Mr. Trump’s inauguration, the only U.S. president to be born in New York City was Theodore Roosevelt, whose birthplace at 28 E. 20th St. in the Flatiron District is both a New York City landmark and a national monument.

Mr. Trump’s former home was supposed to go to auction for a starting bid of $849,000 before Election Day, but the event was cancelled due to last-minute interest in the property, the auctioneers said. Now the home is expected to rake in as much $10 million when it hits the auction block the first week of December due to its newfound prominence, the The New York Post reported last week.

But preservationists said it could take years, maybe even decades before the five-bedroom, four-and-a-half-bathroom house in the upper-middle-class neighborhood of Jamaica Estates is considered historic, if ever.

The research department at the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, for example, has yet to receive a public request to landmark Mr. Trump’s birthplace, according to its spokeswoman.

Likewise, the National Register of Historic Places, has also received zero requests to add Mr. Trump’s birthplace to the federal database, said Jennifer Betsworth, a historic preservation specialist with the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, which handles requests for the register from the state.

Public suggestions can lead to historic designations by the city’s commission and national register, though new designations are also proposed and decided on internally.

“Generally, properties that are associated with people who are still living aren’t eligible,” Ms. Betsworth said. That’s not always the case, however. Former President Bill Clinton’s childhood home in Arkansas was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1994, his second year in office.

Even still, a posthumous review of Mr. Trump’s private residences may conclude that Trump Tower or his second boyhood home is more historically relevant, Ms. Betsworth said.

Mr. Trump’s birth certificate lists the 1940 Tudor, but the family moved into a grander, red brick house around the corner on Midland Parkway when the president-elect was only 4 years old, rendering the second home potentially more significant.

In any case, the next owners of 85-15 Wareham Place will have to decide whether to take the building’s potential designation into consideration when making updates and renovations. Too many alterations could disqualify the home from receiving special status through a national or local designation, the organizations said.

“There are many factors considered by the agency when reviewing a potential designation, including cultural, historic, and architectural significance, and level of alterations,” said Damaris Olivo, communications director for the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission.

Ms. Olivo added that the commission has never reviewed the property and, therefore, could not comment on its historic merits.

As for its practical merits, the Wareham Place house has a living room with a fireplace, sunroom, paneled study and a fully finished basement, in addition to a five-car driveway and a two-car detached garage, according to auctioneer Paramount Realty USA.

The current owners of Mr. Trump’s birthplace, Isaac and Claudia Kestenberg, bought the property in 2008 for $782,500, according to city property records. They put the home up for sale in July with listing agents Laffey Fine Homes for $1.65 million, but then knocked around $250,000 off the price over the following two months before putting the home up for auction.

The slated starting bid for the home was nearly 50% off of the original listing price, according to the auction announcement on Paramount’s website.